William Degouve de Nuncques

Suzanne Degouve de Nunques, by descent from the artist (née Poulet. Suzanne was the artist's second wife, who was previously married to the polar explorer Adrien de Gerlache)
Sale: Hôtel George V, Paris, Rêves symbolistes, 25 June 1975, lot 152
Barry Friedman Ltd., New York (by 1984)
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 24 May 1988, lot 104 
Joey & Toby Tannenbaum, Toronto
Private collection, Ghent
Galerie Jean Nelis, Brussels 
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2009

Munich, Michael Hasenclever Gallery, Austellung Symbolismus, 1978, no. 12, illustrated in the catalogue 
Chicago, University of Chicago, David and Alfred Smart Gallery; New York, Barry Friedman Ltd.; Wilmington, Delaware Art Museum, Fernand Khnopff and the Belgian Avant-Garde, 1984, no. 39, illustrated in the catalogue
Namur, Musée Félicien Rops; Otterlo, Kröller-Müller Museum; William Degouve de Nuncques maître du mystère, 2012, illustrated in the catalogue

Hans Wijgergangs, Ronald Feltkamp and Théo Galle, William Degouve de Nuncques online catalogue raisonné, 3.1901.011, illustrated

The artist's canvas has not been lined. A faint pattern of hairline craquelure is visible on close inspection. Ultra-violet light reveals strokes of strengthening to the white pigments of the stalactites and stalagmites (it has been suggested that these could be reapplied more finely if desired), and a small number of other scattered spots and minor strokes. This painting is otherwise in good condition, and ready to hang. Presented in an ebonised wood frame, the canvas presented 'floating' with the edges visible.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted in Mallorca in 1901, La Grotte du Drac is among the most remarkable and poetic of the dreamlike landscapes Degouve de Nuncques painted during his two-and-a-half-year stay on the island. The inspiration for the present work came from the great subterranean lake within the Cuevas del Drach to the island’s east near Manacor, a location which had only recently been explored by the father of speleology Édouard-Alfred Martel.

Anticipating the later Surrealism of René Magritte and Max Ernst, Degouve inflects the other-worldly, eerily silent subject with the spiritual, enigmatic mood of his nocturnes, creating a luminously melting harmony of blue, green and white. While Degouve took much inspiration from the visionary Symbolist poetry of Verhaeren and Maeterlinck, during his stay in Mallorca he befriended the Catalan artists Joaquim Mir (lots 18, 21 and 25) and Santiago Rusiñol (lot 17), selling a version of the present work to Rusiñol (now Museu Cau Ferrat, Sitges).

Painted in the year that marked the beginning of Picasso's blue period, in style and emotional content La Grotte du Drac, Manacor underlines the fruitful relationship between Spanish and Belgian modern art at the time.